September

This is gonna be a long one folks.

 I don't remember the reason behind a lot of the following pictures and videos but I still feel like they need to be included.

I mean, just look at this cutie!

This one's pretty good too :)

Our garden in full force. The watermelons pretty much took over the whole thing. We had carrots, endless tomatoes, endless zucchini, watermelons, and green onions.

Thomas would check on the watermelons every day. He was so excited when we were actually allowed to pick them.

Thomas loves visiting the chickens. I check on him every so often through his bedroom window. I love this picture of him sitting on his car having a conversation with them, 

Those days are mostly over now. Instead he finds joy in chasing them around the coop with various objects. Poor chickens. Luckily he hasn't discovered how to open the gate. As long as they don't try to escape they are safe. What a good example for a talk or lesson on obedience.

Back to this little cutie.

She turned 7 months. 

I think by this point she had her first tooth.

She could sit and roll over (good dog!)

Still not crawling

Loved real food (and still does)

And was just the sweetest and most content little girl.

Despite being "chill," I could not catch a single picture of her lying still, So be it.

We love our Becca girl

My sister Jessica sent us a surprise package full of fabulous goodies. Thomas was super excited to open it. We are so lucky to have such great family. She's definitely on track for best/favorite Canadian aunt!

Father and son.

I don't know why, but I love checking on the children at night. I look forward to seeing what sort of sleeping position they will be in. Whether it's Thomas with his stuffed animals arranged nicely all around him or with treasures in hand, or Becca with random limbs sticking out the side. They are just so precious and I feel like these moments will go by too fast.

Praying mantis fun

Good times with stickers. We have a rule that stickers can only go on paper or ourselves. Thomas seems to prefer the latter.

He doesn't mind improvising when he runs out of room on his own body....

I've been trying to find various ways to entertain Thomas during Becca's nap times. He really enjoyed this coloured water station.

We watched a ward member's four kids for the third time. Now that we had Becca our kid count was up to 6. Luckily it was only for 2 days which made it a lot easier. Sadly soon after the family moved to Utah. We will miss them dearly.

Pirate day 2016

Thomas was a little less excited to dress up this year, but he was still happy with the results. I'm hoping it's just a phase and that he will get into it again next year. 

The highlight of this year was that they opened a Krispy Kreme close to our house so we didn't have to brave tons of traffic for our donuts. I still can't believe we got 4 dozen donuts. I promise we gave most of them away.

Becca putting on her best pirate scowl.

I just can't get enough of this cutie!

We must have been having too good of a summer because at the end of the month we ended up having two emergency trips in one week. 

The first was for Thomas who broke a glass and had to get stitches in his finger. (Like mother, like son, I suppose.)

He did very well. I didn't even realize he had cut himself until I saw the blood pouring from his hand. He was calm the whole time I cleaned it and even sat there holding his hand above his head while I got everything ready to go to the emergency room. What a trooper.

The actual stitching part was a little more traumatic. He did not like the needle. It's hard to see your baby being held down crying and calling out to you for help. Thankfully it was over pretty quickly and once it was numb he was fine. A big thank you to "Baby Einsteins" for they're distraction and classical background music.

About three days later we were back to the ER with this one.

I feel like parenting is all about risk vs. sanity calculations and my calculation on this one was very wrong. I had Becca on the counter in a bumbo (risk) so that I could make dinner right next to her without her screaming her head off (sanity). I didn't account for Thomas getting into the spice cupboard and of course the moment I turned around Becca had kicked her self a foot and a half over to the edge and off the counter. Parenting fail.

I took her to the emergency room but they said I needed to go to the children's hospital to be on the safe side. So of course there was the long time of waiting and waiting. Becca took it like a champ. For someone who just cracked open her skull, she was in a surprisingly good mood.

When they finally got us in they took us for a ct scan, which was followed by more waiting, and then a flurry of doctors and nurses as they rushed in the hook her up to every machine imaginable and take her to the PICU.

They said she had fractured her skull in several places and there was some bleeding in the brain. Several days and many more tests and x-rays later we were able to go home with no need for a recheck or anything. Babies bodies are amazing, 

A big thank you to all those who took care of Thomas while we were in the hospital.

 It was a very emotionally draining time but nothing keeps this little one down for long. We are very grateful that it wasn't more serious or long-term.

We have a thumb sucker on our hands,

Should we be worried that she is already taking selfies?

And just in case you thought this post was focused too much on Becca, here's a pciture of my favorite boy. Plus some videos :)

Thomas' time in the ER had a big impact on him. He now spends his time giving Becca shots and bandaging her up.

Funny kids

I don't know why more of the machines in hospitals aren't wireless. The nurse had to come back pretty much every 15 minutes to reattach the various wires that Becca would rip off. I mean, how can any baby resit a bright shiny red light attached to their foot? 

Thomas trying to pick grapefruits.